BRANDING

The CIA Logo Chaos, Explained

So the CIA rebranded because it decided public Ivies are good enough wants to attract more diverse talent. “The days of all American spies being white male graduates from Ivy League schools are long gone,” per the AP.

But how does a logo that looks tailor-made for Grimes fans accomplish that task? 

Hot takes abound

Mine is that the bolded sans serif font and simple color palette might look more attractive to liberal arts grads looking to work somewhere other than a good ol’ boys’ club. 

But here’s the hottest take of all: The logo doesn’t matter as much as other elements in the grand scheme of a brand.

• “A brand is not a logo. It is the emotional and collective space your organization holds within your audience’s mind. The logo is merely a spoke in a larger wheel and acts as a springboard to a larger brand story [and] richer brand experience,” Sunny Bonnell, founder and CEO of branding agency Motto, told Marketing Brew. 
• Bonnell cited the CIA’s new website and surrounding messaging as the more important factor in its new branding goal. One example of that messaging: “We are looking for people from all backgrounds and walks of life to carry out the work of a nation.”

An Urban Outfitters pop-up shop

...is just one of the things Twitter thought the CIA’s new logo looked like. Here are some of my other favorite comparisons by the wittier-than-me internet: 

1. The biggest Detroit techno party since 1997
2. A hungry independent ad agency focused on their culture as much as their work
3. A modular synthesizer festival in Berlin
4. A cross-disciplinary journal created by makers working across mediums exploring the intersection of art, text, identity, and space. The first issue is $1,000
5. That one Neutral Milk Hotel album cover

AGENCIES

S4’s New Year’s Day Shopping Spree

S4 Capital rang in 2021 with two major U.S. acquisitions. 

• Creative agency Decoded Advertising will combine with S4 content group MediaMonks… 
• …while performance agency Metric Theory will merge with S4 programmatic powerhouse MightyHive. 

S4 not only splurged because it’s doing relatively well financially (S4 Capital saw 16%–17% growth through September 2020), but also because its acquirees overcame pandemic hardships as well. Decoded outperformed those S4 September numbers, per Adweek.

Another reason for the mergers?

S4 has been scaling up its D&I initiatives to improve on its already better-than-average diversity efforts—40% of its workforce comprises BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) employees. For instance, S4 aims to match local population demographics and has debuted an HBCU internship program.

Decoded in particular seems on board. 

• “[DEI] was one of the first two questions I asked Sir Martin about when we met to seriously discuss [the merger],” Decoded founder Matt Rednor told Adweek.
• Decoded also continued its partnership with Girls Who Code this year and cast more diverse characters in its video spots for T-Mobile and Visa. 

Looking ahead: S4's acquisitions should give the holding company more opportunity to drive its diversity and inclusion efforts forward—an opportunity we hope it will seize.

SPONSORED BY SAILTHRU

Four Fake People With Very Real Sales Impact

Retailers traditionally separate their customers by recency, frequency, and monetary value of their purchases. But this year, with our new world of curbside pickup not going anywhere, Sailthru thinks you should be thinking in a new way too.

Allow us to introduce four personas that you should keep in mind when crafting your brand’s click and collect experiences this year.

• The New Shopper: New to your brand.
• The BOPIS Beginner: Recent click and collect convert, out of convenience or caution.
• The Pickup Pro: A fair-weather fan who will keep picking up if the experience is good. Also, great basketball player.
• The Loyal Customer: Shopped with you a bunch, both in-store and online.

Sailthru’s breaking down how each of these peeps should be engaged, and the brands who made it happen—like Target, Best Buy, and Home Depot.

Optimize your click and collect experience with help from Sailthru.

CMOS

Industry Obits

The marketing industry lost two significant leaders last week. Howard Rubenstein died on December 29 at age 88, and Dick Roth died at age 84 on New Year’s Eve. 

Rubenstein: Dubbed PR’s “Dean of Damage Control,” Rubenstein was the rare public relations expert who seemed like he could fix any scandal. Navigating a mid-20th century NYC social scene flecked with characters-turned-clients that Fitzgerald and Thackeray could only dream of creating, Rubenstein founded Rubenstein Associates in 1954. From New York politicos and the Duchess of York to Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and Weight Watchers (now WW) founder Al Lippert, Rubenstein is credited with helping to shape the modern public relations industry.

Roth: In 1988, Roth founded search consultancy Roth Associates, thus establishing the agency search category in the U.S. While Roth Associates is now known as Roth Ryan Hayes, Roth himself continued to advise the firm up until his passing. “His legacy of candid advice to marketers and fairness to agencies will continue. He'd like that,” Matt Ryan, CEO of Roth Ryan Hayes, wrote in a LinkedIn post. 

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Discovery+ announced U.S. distribution deals with Roku, Apple, Amazon, and more at launch. 
• NBCUniversal’s Linda Yaccarino was named Ad Council Board of Directors chair. 
• Facebook chief of advertising integrity Rob Leathern announced he was leaving the company last week.
• Adweek acquired content company Social Media Week yesterday. 

SPONSORED BY MARKETO

Make this year’s marketing resolutions a reality. To help get your bright ideas off the ground, Marketo created a comprehensive deck of simple and straightforward planning templates so you can align, plan, summarize, and communicate better throughout every stage of your campaigns. Customize your templates and make those resolutions a reality with Marketo.

FRENCH PRESS

Marketing tips to make you fancy 

YouTubers: Noah Kagan, founder and Chief Sumo of AppSumo, makes YouTube videos sharing business and marketing tips. He recently did a breakdown on How Mr Beast makes $97,529,400 a Year from YouTube. Noah also does epic giveaways on the channel each month (Tesla, MacBook Pro, etc.) Go subscribe to his channel here. 

Histories: This infographic charts the evolution of the advertising industry over the past four decades.  

Instagrams: Later analyzed 12 million Instagram posts to figure out the best overall times to post on Instagram in 2021—check out the details and explanations. 

CMOs: Catch up on any Marketing Brew CMO Series conversations you might have missed here, then mark your calendar for Thursday’s episode with Ricky Engelberg, CMO at Vistaprint.

AD ANTIQUES

Vintage Ad Browser

You can find my weekend plans in the 1968 ad pictured above.

ICYMI

Catch up on a few Marketing Brew stories you might have missed.

• Marketing Brew’s Favorite Things (aka, our favorite 2020 ad campaigns)
• Tired: The Two Most Widely Predicted 2021 Marketing Trends
• Wired: The Most Niche 2021 Marketing Trend Predictions